[wordup] The Internet Is Shit

[Adam Shand]

Some of this is overly trite and self-important ... however some of it 
rings incredible true.

Enjoy.

Via: http://mpt.phrasewise.com/
From:  http://www.internetisshit.org/

The internet is shit.

It is vitally important that we all realize this and move on. People 
(eg Bloggers) go on and on about how wonderful it is. About how much 
information is out there in cyberspace. About the way that everything 
is within reach in just a few clicks of their mice.

For instance:

  "If I can operate Google, I can find anything... Google, combined with 
Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless, God is everywhere and 
God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to 
God without wires. Now, for many questions in the world, you ask 
Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too."

  Alan Cohen, V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider, New York Times, 
6/29/03

I can name 20 people from my old school class who aren't in Google. I 
can walk into any public library, no matter how tiny and underfunded, 
and find facts, stories, amazing information I would never touch in a 
month of webcrawling. I can go into a bar and hear stories Usenet 
hasn't come close to in its 22 years of waffle. "Oh but what about the 
stuff you CAN get on the web?" the netheads say. But they're missing 
the point.

The internet is not the sole basis upon which you can determine 
existence. It sounds simple but people are starting to forget. If it 
doesn't have a website, that doesn't make something low quality. If you 
can't Google your blind date, that doesn't make them a freak. If one 
website says something about anything, it's more than likely pure 
invention and shouldn't be taken seriously. Checking your sources does 
not mean finding another website that says the same. Fiction is 
self-perpetuating.

Let's say it another way. A URL is not a mark of quality. It's not 
proof of honesty or approval from the FDA. Sure, people say they know 
this already, that a lot of the internet isn't true and a lot of it 
isn't interesting, no matter how angst-ridden and attention-seeking its 
author. But still we praise the internet for everything, from 
mobilising global protests to creating the latest trends, while 
disappearing up its backside and discarding anything outside it as 'out 
of touch'.

While we ascribe every first-world miracle to the electronic age, 
there's something truly missing that we once had in our grasp: our 
sense of wonder. Back in 1995, we were surprised, agog when things 
appeared on the net. People starting going around saying 'wow, this 
could really become something'.  Slowly (very slowly at 16kbps), 
strange websites, new information, odd diversions and discussions with 
people around the world appeared in this brave new world. Each time it 
was met with surprise and delight, even if some of it was deeply 
obscure and slightly dull. There was no doubting the potential of the 
medium.

And look what we've done with it. Food wrappers and soap operas now 
tell us to visit their websites. Money is pumped online by people who 
can't even spell HTML. All manner of pointless and irritating content 
is continually poured down the infinite hole of data, unfiltered and 
over-appreciated. In accepting freedom of speech, we can't hide from 
its consequences - which in this case is millions of terabytes of 
unreliable information, badly designed and clumsily written. We have 
failed our own creation and given birth something truly awful. We're 
just too busy cooing over the pram to notice.

We need to start again. We need to stop saying how wonderful things 
are. We need to openly, truthfully and respectfully admit that the 
internet itself, in almost all of what's been done with it, is shit.

There's no point in undoing what has been done. What we need to do is 
to change our attitude. The internet isn't new any more. The 
evangelists have done their job. Everyone's heard of it even if they 
don't spend their lives logged on. Now its the job of the congregation 
to revolt. Chant it from the rooftops, spread it across your server, 
email it to your friends. The internet is shit.

And then what? Then we can move on. If we truly understand that the 
internet is shit then maybe we'll go back to looking elsewhere to check 
our information instead of just Google. Maybe journalists will do 
proper research again. If we remember that the medium isn't the message 
then maybe we'll stop aimlessly surfing for something amusing when we 
could actually be doing something fun. And, crucially, if the internet 
is just seen as occasionally unavoidable, maybe those websites that 
give us something special will be all the more amazing for it.

Give an infinite number of monkeys typewriters and they'll produce the 
works of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm reading all the 
books where they didn't. I can't wait for the day when the internet 
makes me rejoice in its possibilities again. But right now, it's shit.